ArtisticWoodturners
                                            Newsletter
                                        December 2009

The Christmas season is here, the time for the celebrating the birth of the Christ Child, and for Piece on earth. Hope that you are celebrating this event with your family and friends.

  Our meeting will be our Christmas party starting at 9 p. m. We will have a short business meeting, S&T, then the Exchange. The food will be served around 1030. If you missed the sign up sheet call George McClure to find out what to bring. The club will provide the meat, BBQ by Ralph, bread and drinks.

  If you bring an exchange gift you will be given a number as you come thru the door. Place your wraped gift on the table; keep your number for the drawing order of the exchange. The gift should be something that you turned. If you decide to buy a gift it should be related to turning, a tool, wood or finish etc.  No gag gifts Please.

We have decided to have Show and Tell just for the ladies so you are invited to bring some of your turnings you showed before, you don’t have to make something new.  I know there are plenty of you that have things to show, so make this a S&T to remember.

  There will be no Auction.

  At the last Sawdust event, the order was changed to give more time for the demos. This will not be the order it was the exception. See you at the meeting.

  Remember the challenge for January will be turning a finial shorter than 12” and no larger than 3” in Diameter.

Some came to learn others just to communicate. Our President changed the order of the meeting and he has said that this was just for this session, then back to normal. He had some complaints.


Lets be seated please get this thing started.






Fred has volunteered to show us how to do the Nick Cook's Secret salt shaker. He did pass out instructions to those who wanted. You start with a piece of wood about 8" long and 2 1/4" in diameter.


Drill a 1 5/8 " hole thru the bottom 5/16" deep plus the tenon then drill a 1 3/8" hole 3" deep plus the tenon. Mark this on the outside so you will not drill the hole too deep. This isn't real critical as you will learn after making a few of the shakers.

Here he shows the mark telling him where the bottom of the hole will be.



He then shapes the top and parts off the outside of the shaker. Finish of this part before you part it from the piece, remember to remove the tenon before the parting step.



Hollow cut this end and drill a 1/8th hole through the center. This is the only opening for the salt. Turn the outside diameter to the diameter of the larger forsner bit, in this case it is 1 5/8 "



You then make a cut behind the first cut to match the smaller diameter in this case it will be 1 3/8" remember this is critical to the fit. You then turn down the remaining wood to about 1/2" and sand and part from the chuck.



Use a live center for support while parting off this section of the shaker. The overall length cannot be longer than the depth of the hole. If you haven't finished the outside of the shaker do it now before you glue the inside of the shaker, by using a spigot jaw to hold while finishing the outside of the shaker.

Note: Before you glue make sure to clean up the 1/8th inch hole from blocking the salt, remember the salt has only one hole to load and shake from during use. There fun to make, try it you will be surprised and the make good Christmas presents.

Bill Bryan shows the new turners how to use a fingernail gouge for a scraper. He sat up one lathe to let the new turners get some hands on turning.



Here Bo and Frank try some new techniques on Bills set up. The purpose of the Saw Dust Sessions are to help our members hone their turning skills. If you would like to see a specific type of turning talk to Bill Bryan so he can schedule it for the next time. Remember we do have a mentoring program to help you in this area, all you have to do is get in touch with a mentor.



Bill turns a small bowl for the benefit of the new turners.



Jack shows off his technique for making bird houses. He makes some beautiful turnings.



Lee Howard set up his lathe to show how he makes the Chinese captured rings a very delicate operation. Not enough room to be able to take more photo. We will try to give the turners more room the next time to give the members more access to what is going on.

Thanks to Lee for the photos of his jig for turning the Chinese Ball. This is a very tedious task and time consuming, but worth the effort.



A photo of a completed ball, nice job Lee, he says he wants to try again the next Sawdust Session we have. Didn't have enough room.




We had a volunteer for the auction, Durk did a fine job. Looks like we had quite a few sales thank you for a job well done.



If you bid on some of the cedar be sure to check what you bid on, Bo couldn't find his wood when he went to leave his was the figured cedar. If you picked it up by mistake please return it to BO. Thank you, the management.


Bo shows off his ornaments, Good Job.


Bill Bryan holds up a bowl made from a piece of Purpleheart nice finish.



A piece of spaulted wood, with some nice character, I forgot what kind of wood he used for this turning. I love spaulted wood.


Nice piece of wood makes a nice goblet.


A piece of walnut turned into a useful bowl, as Bill said the knot fell out and he was about finished with this turning, epoxy to the rescue saved the day.


Grumpy Fred turns a nice form, but his mentor says that the walls are too thick, weighs too much. You can't tell till you pick it up.



Fred made a salt shaker for S&T he called it bullet shaped.



Here he holds the one he made during the demo. Thank you Fred.


Darnell shows one of his ornaments that he is making for Christmas presents.



Here he holds a bowl that he made from a piece of palm, said he had quite a time getting it finished. looks like he finally figured it out.


A nice cherry bowl made from a piece of wood that he brought back from Alabama on a two man wood cutting party, you know you were all invited to attend.  


A large supply of ornaments, looks like people on your shopping list will get a surprise. 



Dr.J sat on this piece of burl for a few years before he was inspired to turn, I'm not sure if it is a vase or just a burl form, but now it is a turning.


Frank Buchanan displays three beautiful inside/outside turned ornaments good job.


George holds up a dried gourd that he scraped and sanded for his project and turned it into a ...............................


Very nice rendition of a bird on the gourd, nice going George.



Jack holds up a large trivet that has several different techniques in the turning, segmented base with a piece of corean inlayed, way to go.


Ray Welch is busy making ornaments you'd think it was Christmas or something. Look very delicate.


Ray holds up one of his Sea Urchin creation, nice job.

Bill Hoff's idea for putting a 6" riser block on his band saw. He bought a piece of 2"x4" extruded steel cut to size. He then purchased a bolt long enough to bolt it in place giving him another 6 inches on his band saw. Great Idea thank you for sharing that with the club.